Russia Plans to Limit State Purchases of Foreign Software

The Russian State Duma is planning to impose limitations on government procurement of foreign software products (draft Law No. 7646787-6, introduced to the State Duma on April 9, 2015). According to the draft law, the Russian Government should establish a state register of “Russian software programs”. A software program would be viewed as a Russian product, if the IP rights for such software are owned by either the state, or a Russian non-governmental organization controlled by the state, or a Russian legal entity 50% or more owned by the state or Russian nationals. According to the draft Law, Russian government buyers (including state-owned corporations) should purchase, by default, only the software included into the state register. In order to be able to purchase foreign software products, the Russian government buyers would have to formally demonstrate that the products listed in the Russian state register do not meet their requirements. The procedure and criteria for the substantiation of purchasing foreign software is to be elaborated by the Russian Government. If adopted, the draft Law might seriously affect trade in foreign software products in Russia.